INSECTS INJURIOUS TO ORCHARD FRUITS 



505 



Control is accomplished by spraying with arsenate of lead, 

 applied at the time of the first appearance of the foliage as for 

 the curculio and canker-worms. 



The Plum Curculio * 



Throughout the States east of the Rocky Mountains, the Plum 

 Curculio is one of the worst pests of the common stone and pome 

 fruits. Its larva is the common 

 white "worm" found in peaches, 

 plums, and cherries, while apples 

 and pears are scarred and gnarled 

 by the feeding and egg punctures 

 made by the adults. It is a 

 native insect which breeds on wild 

 plums, wild crab-apples and haw- 

 thorns. The adult is a thick-set 

 snout-beetle about one-quarter 

 inch long, brownish in color, 

 marked with gray and black, 

 and with four black ridged tuber- 

 cles on the wing-covers. The 

 larva is a footless, cylindrical, 

 whitish grub, about one-third inch 

 long, with a small brown head, 

 and usually lies in a curved position as in Fig. 432. 



Life History . . The beetles hibernate under grass, leaves, and 

 other trash on the ground in or near the orchard, or in neighboring 

 woodlands, and commence to emerge just before the fruit trees 

 bloom in the spring. They feed somewhat on the buds, unfolding 

 leaves and blossoms, but mostly on the young fruit as soon as it 

 is set; indeed, in New England the beetles do not emerge until 

 a week or two after the apple blossoms fall. The females com- 

 mence to lay eggs in the young fruits as soon as formed. The 

 egg puncture of the plum curculio is shaped like a crescent and 



* Conotrachelus nenuphar Herbst. Family Curculionidce. See C. S. 

 Crandall, Bulletin 98, 111. Agr. Exp. Sta.; S. A. Forbes, Bulletin 108, ibid.; 

 J. M. Stedman, Bulletin 64, Mo. Agr. Exp. Sta.; E. P. Taylor, Bulletin 21, 

 Mo. State Fruit Exp. Sta.; A. L. Quaintance, Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr., 

 1905, p. 325; Circular 120, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agr., and 

 Bulletin 103, ibid. 



FIG. 431. Bagworm cocoons 



or " Bags." 



